Group 2

Christal Scott, Katherine Hancock, Kayla Chevis, Jonathan Clarke, Malik Thompson

           In this section of Beloved, Toni Morrison focuses on the complication of love. Love has become difficult to grapple with when mixed with the institution of slavery. Stamp Paid reveals the secret that the whole town knows except for Paul D. We learn that when Sethe saw Schoolteacher coming, she took her children and ran to a shed and had killed her baby with a saw as soon as the group found her. She would have killed her other children too, had she not been caught. Sethe said she heard “No. No. Nono. Nonono” (192) in her head when she noticed them coming and that she “collected every bit of life she had made, all the parts of her that were precious and fine and beautiful, and carried, pushed, dragged them through the veil, out, away, over there where no one could hurt them” (192). She loves her children so viscerally that she is willing to take their lives before she lets them go back to Sweet Home with her, which seems paradoxical. When Paul D confronts Sethe about the murder of her baby, he finds it hard to understand how she could bring herself to kill her children. Paul D even goes as far as comparing her actions to an animal and tells her “Your love is too thick” (193). The institution of slavery does not allow room for love. Once free Sethe was able to love her children as freely as she wanted; however, the sight of Schoolteacher, and the fear of her children suffering the agony of slavery warps motherly love into hysterical love.

            The importance of Baby Suggs’ experience is also emphasized in this portion of the novel. When Baby Suggs comes in to the revelation of her freedom it is beautiful. She states, "These hands belong to me. These is my hands. Next she felt a knocking in her chest and discovered something else new: her own heartbeat" (166).  It is irrelevant how many years an ex-slave gets to experience slavery, but it is a gift in itself to experience the pleasure that comes with being your own person. This is why I believe Baby Suggs' sermon to the other ex-slaves was so important, reminding them to love their bodies because it belongs to them now. 

When the book travels through a flashback through Baby Suggs life it delves into the life she had at Sweet Home. It correlates to the idea that there were in fact ways to justify slavery, such as if the master treated his slaves with enough respect, to not brutally harm them, then it was okay. Some slaves were known to judge their condition based on the master, and whether or not he was violent towards them. If you were allowed time off for holidays and did not receive beatings then you had a good experience with being enslaved. Baby Suggs answers all of Mr. Garner’s questions about his kindness at Sweet Home honestly; however, the entire institution of slavery was wrong. Towards the end of Beloved, Morrison discusses slavery under Mr. Garner and Schoolteacher. Morrison’s language and the description of the Sweet Home slaves’ escape shows how Schoolteacher truly views them as animals and property. This makes the Garners’ treatment of them more confusing because though the Garners treated them better, and Mr. Garner called the men “men,” each style of treatment strips the slaves of their rights as humans. Paul D can’t decide if he is a man because Mr. Garner thinks he made them men, or if Mr. Garner recognized the man in each of them as characteristics they had because they were human. Every slaves experience in slavery is different, and this shows the historical diversity of slave life.